早晚
zǎo wǎn · HSK 6
sooner or later
🌅🌙 早 (early/morning) + 晚 (late/evening) = the two bookends of every day
Together they literally mean morning-and-evening. Because those two endpoints cover the whole day, the phrase stretches to mean sooner or later — it will happen at one end of the day or the other.
早 — sun 日 + ten 十 (originally 甲, a helmet/sprout)
Originally depicted the sun 日 rising above a sprouting plant or a person's head, suggesting the early morning when the sun first appears. The lower component was simplified over time into 十. The core meaning 'morning, early' has remained stable since oracle bone script.
晚 — sun 日 + 免 (avoid/phonetic)
晚 combines 日 (sun) as the meaning component with 免 as the phonetic. The sun element signals a time of day, while 免 hints at the pronunciation wǎn. Originally it referred to the late part of the day when the sun is setting, and from there extended to mean 'late' in a general sense.